Inmates recover contacts by making gifts for family

Friday

Nov 30, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 30, 2007 at 6:44 AM

Behind the walls of the Bristol County House of Correction there is little color. The white walls serve as a backdrop to bland tan uniforms worn as standard day-to-day fare, but in a tiny room off to the side of the men’s recreation room blasts of pinks, yellows and any other shade of the rainbow appear.

Will Richmond

Behind the walls of the Bristol County House of Correction there is little color. The white walls serve as a backdrop to bland tan uniforms worn as standard day-to-day fare, but in a tiny room off to the side of the men’s recreation room blasts of pinks, yellows and any other shade of the rainbow appear.

As the sound of dominos clank in the background, 10 inmates sit at desks with a blank white canvas before them. After six weeks, the blank space will be turned into a one-of-a-kind gift that will remind the children of inmates that their parents are still thinking of them and don’t want them to fall into the same traps that placed their father or mother behind bars.

Since 2001, more than 200 inmates have participated in a program that allows them 90 minutes per week to design and create a pillowcase that will be sent to their children.

The most recent group met Thursday. The deadline to finish their pillowcases coming next week.

Set to be wrapped after completion, some in the group of convicts busily drew hearts and filled them in with pink fabric markers while others put finishing touches on puppy dogs and Winnie the Pooh characters.

Some of the illustrations are joined by messages of apologies for making bad choices in life or reminding them that daddy loves them.

“I’m sending a message to let him know that even though I haven’t been there I haven’t forgot about him,” David Costa said as he worked on a pillowcase for his son Joshua displaying three playful puppies. “It’s time for me to step up and I hope this shows his mom that when I get out I want to get my son back in my life.”

The pillowcase concept was born out of what program facilitator Beth Bernier Kilanowich said was an off-the-wall idea she had when her son was switching schools.
Seeking a memento that he could remember his classmates by, Kilanowich had the class sign a pillowcase.

With the support of Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, Kilanowich brought the idea to the House of Correction, but changed the message behind the idea a little bit.

“We’re sending home a message that will be the last one their children see before they go to sleep and be the first they see when they wake up in the morning,” Kilanowich said.

Running on and off for the past six years, Kilanowich alternates the program between the men’s and women’s facilities and estimated that some 450 cases have been produced. When the pillow cases are completed, she wraps them in wrapping paper appropriate to the time of year and sends them out to the inmates’ children.

To give a gift created by hand, especially with Christmas around the corner, had the recent group of participants eager to complete their projects.

“This is like nothing you can get on the street,” Keith Godfrey said as he put finishing touches on his kitty cat-adorned pillow case. “I’ve never had any artistic skills in my life, but I can’t believe how good this is coming.”

Godfrey said this will be the first Christmas he is spending away from his three children.

He hopes the gift will help to soften the separation.

“They’re going to know I made this, and I can guarantee they’ll be sleeping with it every night,” Godfrey said. “This is one of the best things I’ve done in my life. It really is.”

While most of the pillow cases being made in this session are going to young children, Kilanowich said, some parents have sent them to their adult children. As an example she said one woman sent a pillow case to her daughter after not being in contact for 20 years. The gift ended up bringing the two together again.

“I might be able to send a letter or card home but this is really something special,” Korry Martin said as he prepared a pillow case for his son. “And when I get home and I see it’s on the bed, it’s going to make me feel real good.”